Refineries not for sale, says Kachikwu

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has assured that Nigeria’s refineries would not be sold, but that joint venture partners with established track records of success in refining would be invited to support the running of the refineries.
He made this disclosure during an official tour of the Okrika Jetty and the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited, yesterday.
Dr. Kachikwu disclosed further that the NNPC is to commence unbundling of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Ltd (PPMC) into three different companies.
He said that the PPMC would be split into a pipelines company that would focus primarily on the maintenance of the over five thousand kilometers pipelines of the Corporation; a storage company that would maintain all the over 23 depots and a products marketing company that would market and sell petroleum products.
He informed that the move would ensure that the right set of skills are rightly positioned and the number of leakages in terms of pipelines break and products loss are reduced to the barest minimum.
The GMD noted that the ongoing phased rehabilitation of all the state-owned refineries would be given an accelerated vigour with the aim of reducing petroleum products’ importation into the country, adding that at full capacity, all the refineries could supply only 20 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS otherwise known as petrol on a daily basis.
He stated that efforts are in top gear to fix all the crude and petroleum products pipelines across the country, stressing that the Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, and Police would be engaged to provide aerial survey of the pipelines, engineering and marine surveillance for the network of pipelines.
Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director of the PHRC, Dr. Bafred Audu Enjugu said the ongoing phased rehabilitation of the company cost a little less than $10million, adding that the job was holistically carried out by indigenous Engineers without any foreign support.
On her part, the Managing Director of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited, Mrs. Esther Namdi-Ogbue, assured the GMD that the Company would think outside the box to provide solutions to all the challenges confronting the Company.